Good one. I’d put Drew down as almost the exact same style.
Fwiw,
Calera
Mt Eden
Arcadian
Hanzell
Hirsch
Peay
Failla
Littorai
Pax
Donum
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Great topic!
I’m a +1 for Ceritas and any cold climate PN. I would also add Cobb to the list.
Question: No love for the “Gary’s?”
My favorite current producers are:
Domaine de la Cote
Clarice
Sandhi
Cattleya
Occidental
Whitcraft
Rhys
Kutch
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Don’t know this producer. I will check them out.
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Cobb is a good add and Hirsch.
Lots of great producers mentioned (and to be mentioned) but I think it would be hard to find a better CA Pinot producer than Domaine de la Cote.
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Is Small Vines on anyone’s radar? I picked up six bottles from a couple of the 2020 vintage single vineyard offerings at auction recently and am very impressed.
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Cattleya makes some great Chardonnays and has recently started making some Cabernets from Coombsville.
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West Sonoma Coasts fans in our household:
Occidental
Rivers-Marie
Raen
Hirsch
Dumol
Littorai
Failla
Flowers (single blocks)
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Here is a top 9 from me.
I drink less and less California wines (get off my lawn!) but I would be ecstatic to own as many Pinots as possible from these producers. Cheers!
Kutch
Littorai
Cobb
Rochioli
Dehlinger
Ceritas
Aubert
Dumol
Arista
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You’re making a lot of bold claims but your statement that Oregon PN is priced higher than Cali PN isn’t based on anything in reality and I have to call you on this. Do an actual search on K&L or Winebid or really any online wine retailer and you will easily see that California is consistently priced higher than Oregon. Can you back this up with any actual facts?
If you truly think that Santa Cruz is the best outside of Burgundy, you are entitled to that opinion. But don’t make things up to fit your narrative.
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I am surprised at how many people are digging their heals into a particular region of California. I have found that great wines can come from Santa Cruz (Kutch, Rhys, etc), Sonoma Coast (Littorai, Hirsch, etc), Santa Barbara (Domaine De La Cote) and Mendocino too.
To me the key is producers who are generally working in cooler climates AND crucially are able to have a say in the viticulture. There are consistently certain producers who make viticulture decisions throughout the year to mitigate the hotter climate that California brings. I’m particularly thinking of someone like Ted Lemon of Littorai who works very closely with many different sites and yet their wines always seem to show a different aromatic lift, even compared to wines from the same site and same vintage.
A few others that I would include that I haven’t seen mentioned:
Failla
Anthill Farms
Tyler
Chanin
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In no particular order:
Aubert
Merry Edwards
Dehlinger
Gary Farrell
Marcassin
Paul Hobbs
Sandler
Williams Selyem
Big Basin
Kistler
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Here sauv blanc is great also. Married to Jeff Pisoni
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Jaffurs?
I am one of the few people in the world that’s made both Oregon Pinot Noir (again from more AVAs and more vineyards than nearly any winery save ones that are simply amassing huge lots for cheap wine) and California Pinot Noir; from Hirsch Vineyard in 2002 and Bearwallow Vineyard in 2022 and 2023. My California experience is limited to two higher end properties but I buy from basically the highest of the high end here in Oregon as well so while it’s not apples to apples it’s not apples to BMW parts for sure.
The California fruit has always been more expensive than Oregon fruit. I presume it is more expensive to make wine in California than Oregon (cost of property, different labor laws, etc.). So, at a minimum I would say it is probably more expensive to grow grapes and make wine in California. What that translates to in terms of average per bottle price of all premium Oregon Pinot Noir versus California Pinot Noir, I don’t know. My winery tends to be, all things considered on the less expensive side of things (Marcus Goodfellow is as well and I can name other producers that traffic in wines along the same sort of pricing model). I don’t know if California has that sort of thing going on or not in their Pinot Noir industry.
This is what I will say and it probably will be surprising to folks. In terms of California to Oregon there are a larger (disproportionate) number of excellent wineries and winemakers in California than Oregon. The large amount of growth in wineries here in Oregon is largely fueled by inexperienced people, folks with tons of money but no ideas, consulting winemakers with lots of clients. The last two go hand in hand. I am sure that if a Top 10 list of Oregon were put on here I would disagree with the majority of folks’ lists. It’s not that there aren’t excellent places but I think California has more wineries with longstanding traditions/families/winemakers that are well-trained and doing good work. I don’t even know California Pinot Noirs that well, but I do know what is being made largely by who up here and I am not always impressed by what I know.
That being said I think that the quality of fruit is disproportionately higher here than it is in California. I ultimately ended up really liking our 2002 Hirsch Vineyard bottling but it was far from our top wine in 2002. I think our Bearwallow stuff is excellent but its not our best wine. Now, that could be attributed to inexperience with these areas and sites and I am willing to not only hear that argument but make it against myself. However, just last month I had the opportunity being in New Jersey to purchase a bottle from an oft mentioned producer here of Anderson Valley Pinot Noir. It retailed at either $70 or $75 (he gave me a discount and the bottle came from the storage area so did not have pricing on it). It was fine. It wasn’t excellent by any stretch of the imagination. Bias raining down like no one’s business here, but our 2022 bottling is way better than this wine. So, just being around and making a LOT of Pinot Noir for 30 years has some merit to it regardless of from where things originally hail. After tasting that wine I was like, “they’re going to need to re-name this AVA Jim Anderson Valley when I’m done with it.” Settle down out there. Settle down.
I think this situation will only be exacerbated with time and climate change. I think there will be more difficult growing situations and therefore more shaky growing regions the farther south one travels. Will that lead to better, more experienced winemakers coming up here or just more large operations buying Oregon wineries up, which I also don’t think has helped the cause in terms of making any of those wineries better operations. Maybe more efficient but as far as I can tell, not better. Then again if some place out there is looking to write some giant check…
I don’t know that there’s a way to say which is better. I think it is undeniable that there are better wineries and winemakers (as a whole) in California than Oregon. I would argue (but don’t have vast knowledge of, but who really does?) that Oregon Pinot Noir fruit is of a potential higher end than equivalent California sites but I’m not going to get into a this versus that debate with anyone about it all because at some point it’s just arguing one’s biases. Therefore, I think Oregon has more potential upside to it but it would take a lot for that to be realized in some sort of across the board/storming the ramparts kind of way.
This all being said, I have no idea what the Top 10 Pinot Noir producers in California are.
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Truly depends upon the style of pinot noir you enjoy, right? If you lean more towards the riper styles, this is not your cup of tea 
Cheers
They do certainly make Pinot - they started doing a little bit under Craig and the couple that purchased the label was producing pinot under a separate name out of Lompoc. They have continued to make pinot but are certainly known for doing so in most circles . . .
Cheers